Aw man, I loved his work on The Green Hornet. The series was unfairly compared to the Batman series (same procuders at the same time) and the actor himself was overshadowed by the martial arts mastery of Bruce Lee, Williams solid acting chops made The Hornet and Britt Reid a real person and a damned good character. He also threw a hell of a powerful punch. This is one of those actors I wish I had been able to meet at a convention. This is no way to celebrate the 50th anniversaryof the series. Time marches on....
I vastly prefer The Green Hornet TV series to Batman. I'd love it if they worked out the rights and released this serieson DVD or Blu. Fantastic series and truly great Billy May music (don't let his 3rd season Batman output fool ya).
Oh yes, Friday nights on ABC. But just yesterday I was telling someone about the time Greenie & Kato guested on Batman and how Bruce Lee had to "tone it down." And weird that the heroes of a series that played it straight appeared in a camp satire and how both series had the same creators.
What a pairing, Williams and Lee. I can remember so many episodes. One that sticks out is when Kato "shot" Britt Reid. The characters straddled the criminals-or-crimefighters aspect really well.
Van Williams had only a few roles in feature films during his career. His largest role came in the 1963 Hall Bartlett film THE CARETAKERS. Williams co-starred as "Dr. Larry Denning" in the film. Ava Records released a re-recording of Elmer Bernstein's score on LP, which was reissued on CD by Mainstream in 1991 and Intrada in 2014. The original tracks were released by Varese Sarabande in 2008.
Williams was a regular in a number of television series during his career:
“Bourbon Street Beat” – New Orleans was the setting for this hour-long detective series from Warner Bros. It starred Richard Long as “Rex Randolph” and Andrew Duggan as “Cal Calhoun,” the owners of Randolph and Calhoun Special Services. Van Williams played their young assistant, “Kenny Madison.” The series was shot in Hollywood on the set of the Warners film A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. But ABC desired to give the series a look of local authenticity. So they purchased a half-interest in a real New Orleans restaurant, The Absinthe House, so that they could use its name. They then set the offices of Randolph and Calhoun above the restaurant in their back lot recreation of New Orleans. The series premiered on Monday night, at 8:30 PM on October 5, 1959. During its second half hour, the show was up against another detective series on NBC—“Peter Gunn,” which was then in its second season. But worse, it went head-to-head against two top-ten shows on CBS—“Father Knows Best” (#6) and “The Danny Thomas Show” (#4). “Bourbon Street Beat” was not competitive, and was canceled after one season of 38 episodes.
Warner Bros. Records issued an LP featuring music from the series and other music related to New Orleans, as conducted by the musical director for the series, Don Ralke.
“Surfside 6” – This Warner Bros. detective series was set in Miami Beach, and except for its locale was virtually identical to Warner’s other detectives series, “77 Sunset Strip” and “Hawaiian Eye.” Warners had liked the work that Van Williams had done on “Bourbon Street Beat,” so they promoted his character “Ken Madison” to a detective and moved him to this new series, pairing him up with two other young rising stars—Troy Donohue as “Sandy Winfield II,” and Lee Patterson as “Dave Thorne.” “Surfside 6” was the address of the trio, whose houseboat was anchored next to a Miami Beach hotel. ABC slipped the series right into the Monday at 8:30 slot that had been occupied by “Bourbon Street Beat.” But the competition one year later was decidedly weaker. “Peter Gunn” and “Father Knows Best” had been moved to other locations on their network’s schedules, being replaced by new shows that did not last the season. And “The Danny Thomas Show,” then in its eighth year, saw its ratings begin to slip from #4 to #12. The result was that “Surfside 6” was renewed for a second season. During the 1961-62 season, ABC moved “Surfside 6” back a half hour to the 9PM slot on Monday. This put the first half hour of the show up against “The Danny Thomas Show” instead of the now-cancelled “Bringing Up Buddy’ that it had faced the year before. Worse, “Surfside 6” now faced a powerful new competitor during its second half-hour—“The Andy Griffith Show,” which was the #7 rated show for the year. Although “Surfside 6” had an unusually large second-season production order of 40 episodes, it was subsequently canceled. Co-stars Van Williams and Diane McBain would appear together the next year in THE CARETAKERS.
“The Tycoon” – Van Williams’ third run as a series regular came in this 1964 ABC sitcom, ironically from Danny Thomas Productions. Walter Brennan, who had ended his 6-year run on “The Real McCoys” the previous year, starred as “Walter Andrews,” a crusty widower who was chairman of the board of Thunder Corporation, a huge California conglomerate. Van Williams played “Pat Burns,” Walter’s personal assistant. ABC debuted the series on Tuesday’s at 9PM, using “McHale’s Navy” which was beginning to fade in its third season, as a lead in. The pair of sitcoms had the misfortune of going up against CBS’s “The Red Skelton Show,” then in its 14th season and as popular as ever, finishing at #6 for the year. In addition, the competition on NBC was the first season of “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” Predictably, “The Tycoon” was canceled after one season.
Mr. DiMucci, my hat is off to you once again! THANK YOU SO MUCH for all of the wonderful history that you never fail to share with us here! I always LOVE your amazing contributions!
Mr. DiMucci, my hat is off to you once again! THANK YOU SO MUCH for all of the wonderful history that you never fail to share with us here! I always LOVE your amazing contributions!
Hey Dickinson, isn't that stuff something else? Hell I was a toddler then and still remember all of 'em. Throw in Adventures in Paradise, Hawaiian Eye and World of Giants and I'm in Rod "Russell Garcia" Taylor territory. Oh throw them all in, I'll remember!
He later went to Hawaii for the Saturday morning adventure series Westwind from D'Angelo Productions (Joe Run Run, The Red Hand Gang).
OMG - this show! This is the series that replaced the Star Trek animated series on Saturday mornings. I remember vividly tuning in and being greeted with "Star Trek will no longer be seen at this time. Please stay tuned for Westwind."
I never saw a second of Westwind, I was one crushed little kid. Sorry, Van, I'm sure you were great in it.
“The Green Hornet” – The success of ABC's “Batman” series, which debuted in January 1966, prompted the network to adapt the venerable radio and movie-serial character The Green Hornet into a series. The show starred Van Williams as “The Green Hornet” as well as his alter ego “Britt Reid,” editor and publisher of the Daily Sentinel. The series also introduced martial artist Bruce Lee to American television audiences as his partner, “Kato.” Unlike the campy and humorous Batman series, “The Green Hornet” was played straight. Van Williams became good friends with Bruce Lee and repeatedly negotiated with the show's producers to give Lee more screen time and lines. Lee helped choreograph many of the show's fight scenes, and taught Williams some basic techniques that he is sometimes seen using throughout the series. The series debuted on Friday, September 9, 1966 at 7:30 PM. The show went up against two other action series—CBS’s “The Wild Wild West,” then in its second season, and NBC’s newcomer “Tarzan.” Although “The Wild Wild West” didn’t crack the list of top-30 shows, “Tarzan” came in at #27 for the year, and the two of them were enough to seal the doom of “The Green Hornet.” The series was canceled after 26 episodes.
20th Century Fox Records released an LP of Billy May’s music for the series.
By the early 1970s, Bruce Lee had become a big star in America. He had appeared in a second television series (1971’s “Longstreet”) and had two of his Chinese martial arts films released in the U.S. (FISTS OF FURY and THE CHINESE CONNECTION). Lee mysteriously died just a month before his big American-produced film, ENTER THE DRAGON, opened in the U.S. in August 1973. In 1974, at the suggestion of his 10-year-old son Marco, enterprising producer Laurence Joachim licensed the rights to four episodes of “The Green Hornet” series and edited them into the feature film THE GREEN HORNET. Although Van Williams’ name still appeared first in the opening on-screen credits, the advertising for the film top-billed Bruce Lee over Van Williams. Released in both the U.S. and overseas, THE GREEN HORNET became the fifth biggest grossing Bruce Lee film ever.
In 1976, Joachim compiled four more episodes of the series into the feature film FURY OF THE DRAGON. Although Van Williams’ name appears on the movie’s poster, his name is omitted entirely from the opening credits of the film:
He later went to Hawaii for the Saturday morning adventure series Westwind from D'Angelo Productions (Joe Run Run, The Red Hand Gang).
OMG - this show! This is the series that replaced the Star Trek animated series on Saturday mornings. I remember vividly tuning in and being greeted with "Star Trek will no longer be seen at this time. Please stay tuned for Westwind."
I never saw a second of Westwind, I was one crushed little kid. Sorry, Van, I'm sure you were great in it.
"Westwind" was a young adult television action drama on the NBC Saturday morning line up. The show was named for the twin masted yacht, Westwind. The plot of the show concentrated on a scientist/photographer couple, Steve and Kate Andrews (Van Williams amd Niki Dantine), and their two teenage children, Robin and Tom (Kimberley Beck and Steve Burns), sailing around the islands of the Pacific, finding danger and adventure. Westwind ran from the fall of 1975 through the spring of 1976 from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
"Westwind" was known for its lush photography on land and underwater by Lamar Borem. Borem was the photographer for the television series "Flipper." The show was filmed in Hawaii by William P. D'Angelo Productions. "Westwind" went up against "The Ghost Busters," a live action comedy on CBS (which preceded the unrelated 1984 film by 8 years) and "The Oddball Couple," an animated homage to the Neil Simon-based comedy series on ABC. Although "Westwind" did moderately well in the ratings, it was canceled after 13 episodes because of high production costs as compared to the standard cost of other Saturday morning shows.
"Westwind" was known for its lush photography on land and underwater by Lamar Borem. Borem was the photographer for the television series "Flipper." The show was filmed in Hawaii by William P. D'Angelo Productions. "Westwind" went up against "The Ghost Busters," a live action comedy on CBS (which preceded the unrelated 1984 film by 8 years)
Similarly, 1976's Monster Squad (from B'Angelo's other company D'Angelo-Bullock-Allen Productions) was nothing to do with the movie from 1987.
“The Green Hornet” – The success of ABC's “Batman” series, which debuted in January 1966, prompted the network to adapt the venerable radio and movie-serial character The Green Hornet into a series. The show starred Van Williams as “The Green Hornet” as well as his alter ego “Britt Reid,” editor and publisher of the Daily Sentinel. The series also introduced martial artist Bruce Lee to American television audiences as his partner, “Kato.” Unlike the campy and humorous Batman series, “The Green Hornet” was played straight. Van Williams became good friends with Bruce Lee and repeatedly negotiated with the show's producers to give Lee more screen time and lines. Lee helped choreograph many of the show's fight scenes, and taught Williams some basic techniques that he is sometimes seen using throughout the series. The series debuted on Friday, September 9, 1966 at 7:30 PM. The show went up against two other action series—CBS’s “The Wild Wild West,” then in its second season, and NBC’s newcomer “Tarzan.” Although “The Wild Wild West” didn’t crack the list of top-30 shows, “Tarzan” came in at #27 for the year, and the two of them were enough to seal the doom of “The Green Hornet.” The series was canceled after 26 episodes.
Nobody did series promos like ABC back then. I love seeing them, thanks for digging that up!
Damn I saw that '74 compilation movie and can't remember where. But do recall its cheesy editing and the print was pretty sad. Would love to see the Fury follow-up for the fun of it. Didn't know of its existence until now.
When the only thing I had on the Green Hornet, was one comic with his masked face on it, I thought that the Green Hornet was played by Burt Lancaster.
He was convincing as a friendly Britt Reid as much as a menacing and cold calculating Green Hornet. Just like Christophe Reeve or Lynda Carter, he will be for me THE Green Hornet.
The show was blessed with great actors for all main characters. The car by Dean Jeffries was also pure genius. It had class, presence and was absolutely menacing. It was a serious version of "The car". Both really intimidating because of certain something.
I only wish we'd had The Green Hornet as a proper series broadcast in the UK at the time. Those in the merchandise market thought they were on to a good thing, perhaps jumping the gun. Corgi toys brought out a wonderful die-cast model of the car. But no one knew what it was from!
